News & Comment
Feminism in Africa: A Colonial Farce to Trample Society’s Harmony

News

On Tuesday 16th October 2018, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed named a 20 member cabinet with women taking up an equal number of slots with their male colleagues. (The Star, 16/10/2018). Two days later on Thursday, 18th October 2018, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame named a 26 member cabinet with Women make up 50 per cent of the new cabinet, 13 out of 26. (The New Times, 19/10/2018). Seven days later on Thursday, 25th October, Ethiopian parliament elected SahleWork-Zewde as the fifth and the first female president since the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPDRF) came to power in 199. (Addis Standard, 25/10/2018)

Comment

The decisions taken by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who is a Muslim married to a Christian wife, were deliberate and aimed at entrenching evil western-values anchored on the secular capitalist myopic slogan of “Feminism=Women’s independence” championed by Western secular colonial states and their organizations like UN and puppet-led African Union (AU). Therefore, the events reverberated across the world with both international and local mainstream media reporting the above three stories overwhelmingly; and especially the statements made by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, “Our women ministers will disprove the old adage that women can’t lead. This decision is the first in the history of Ethiopia and probably in Africa” and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, “A higher number of women in decision-making roles have led to a decrease in gender discrimination and gender-based crimes.” (Independent, 16-20/10/2018).

Feminism and its connotations particularly Gender Equality is an evil concept emanating from the Western secular capitalist colonial states that aim for equalization of men and women in their duties and rights in the society. In realizing the aim, it advocates for women’s political, economic, social, educational and judicial rights. Since Africa is a colonial-farm, where its agent-leaders are nothing but obedient and sub-servant implementers of their masters’ policies!

Therefore, Africa via AU adopted the following frameworks in support for the so-called gender equality and women’s empowerment that will guide regional, sub-regional, national frameworks, policies and programs:

1. The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa in 2003;

2. The Maputo Plan of Action on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in 2006 to take the continent forward towards the goal of universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services in Africa by 2015 including the reduction of gender-based violence;

3. The declaration of 2010-2020 as the African Women’s Decade in 2008 to advance gender equality by accelerating the implementation of Dakar, Beijing, and African Union Assembly Decisions on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, through dual top-down and bottom-up approach; and

4. The Framework for Action and Recommendations on Harmful Traditional Practices in 2011 which identifies priorities for action in combating harmful traditional practices.

The outcome of the execution of those frameworks and others not mentioned have caused misery to marriages, motherhood and family unit. As they are all anchored on the fallacious statement of “women liberation” from their primary roles as wives, mothers and home-makers/house-wives into them becoming sexual and commercial products exploited by employers and multinationals on the pretext of gender equality and women empowerment! In other words, liberated women are women focused on competing with men in careers, outsmarting men in their primary roles as breadwinners. Some of the catastrophic consequences witnessed today across Africa and the world is that of disharmony emanating from fatigued women who oscillates between workplaces and the houses where there are targets set by employers to be met and children and family needs to be attended to respectively! Promotion of delayed marriages and fornication on flimsy grounds that elevates studying for careers and abhorrence of early marriage as a culture of shackling women to the kitchen and tending children and home-making! Anyone opposing the re-definition of gender roles including but not limited to educated or non-educated housewives are viewed as backward, outdated and supporting injustice and oppression towards women in general!

Africa needs to awaken from its slumber by unshackling herself from her western colonial masters who imposed on her invalid secular capitalist ideology and its evil systems including that of social liberalism that promotes feminism and its secular economic system that has shackled Africa into a perpetual begging continent despite possessing numerous resources! The only way to realize that is to embrace the call for the Khilafah on the method of Prophethood that will chase away the colonialists and offer Africa genuine liberation anchored on the implementation of pure Islam through its pure culturing of the Islamic identity that values marriages, motherhood and family unit as the foundation of an Islamic society! It is only through the Khilafah that women will realize their true potential in their primary roles as wives, mothers and homemakers.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Ali Nassoro Ali
Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Kenya